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ETHICAL 
ADDRESSES 


March,  1907 

Vol.  XIV.      No.  7 


AND  ETHICAL  RECORD 


The  Conflict  of  the 

Catholic  Church  with  the 

French  Republic 

William  M.  Salter 


The  Russian  Situation 

Alexis  Aladin  and  Nicholas  Tchaykovsky 


Published  Monthly:  ETHICAL  ADDRESSES 
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baugh. What  an  Ethical  Culture  Society  is 
For.  Leslie  Willis  Sprague.  The  Moral  In- 
struction Movement  Abroad. 

MARCH. — The  Conflict  of  the  Catholic  Church  with  the 
French  Republic.  William  M.  Salter.  The  Russian 
Situation.  Alexis  Aladin  and  Nicholas  Tchaykov- 
sky. 

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Reform  and  the  Death  Penalty.    Carl  Heath,  London. 

The  Russian  Revolution.    William  M.  Salter,  Chicago. 

Ethical  Aspect  of  Economics,  II.  W.  R.  Sorley,  University  of 
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Women  and  Democracy.    F.  Melian  Stawell,  London. 

The  State  Absorbing  the  Function  of  the  Church.  E.  0.  Sis- 
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THE  CONFLICT  OF  THE  CATHOLIC 

CHURCH  WITH  THE  FRENCH 

REPUBLIC* 

The  bitterness  of  language  about  the  present  religious 
and  political  crisis  in  France  is  very  great.  On  the  one 
side  we  hear  of  "Papal  aggression"  and  of  the  "rebellion" 
of  the  Catholic  Church.  On  the  other  side  the  Republic 
is  charged  with  "outrageous  thefts,"  with  "falsehood, 
duplicity  and  hypocrisy,"  with  "brutal  vindictiveness ;" 
the  government  is  spoken  of  as  persecuting,  as  filled  with 
infidel  hatred  against  the  Church  and  Christianity,  as  op- 
pressing and  enslaving  the  Church  and  bent  on  its  de- 
struction. It  must  be  confessed  that  of  the  two,  the  dis- 
ciples of  the  Republic  show  the  better  temper,  though 
since  the  Church  is  the  aggrieved  party  the  greater  vio- 
lence of  speech  may  be  excused  on  its  side — it  having  al- 
ways to  be  borne  in  mind  that  Catholics  are  men  as  well 
as  Christians.  I  have  no  wish  to  enter  into  the  polemics 
of  the  case,  but  I  have  been  exceedingly  interested  in  try- 
ing to  get  a  clear  idea  of  the  situation  and  to  form  some 
judgment  as  to  the  real  merits  of  the  controversy,  and  if 
there  are  those  here  who  have  been  puzzled  as  I  have  been 
by  what  they  have  read  in  the  newspapers,  possibly  my 
words  may  be  of  help  to  them. 

First,  let  me  make  a  general  observation.  I  see  no  ab- 
stract reason  why  there  should  not  be  a  union  of  Church 
and  State.  If  people  were  substantially  of  one  mind 
in  religion,  I  see  no  reason  why  they  should  not  make  their 

*An  address  before  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  of  Chicago, 
in  Steihway  Hall,  January  6,  1907. 

199 

3420S4 


200\  ;TJhK  $:I\f  HCD^lt  CHI3RCtS.  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

priests  or  pastors  public  functionaries  and  support  them 
out  of  the  pubHc  funds  as  well  as  by  private  and  volun- 
tary contributions.  So  our  New  England  forefathers  did 
for  a  time,  so  Greece  and  Rome  and  practically  all  ancient 
communities  did,  so  almost  all  modern  European  states 
have  done — down  at  least  to  quite  recent  times.  The  idea 
of  religion  as  a  private  matter,  and  of  its  support  as  some- 
thing to  be  left  to  individual  enterprise,  is  a  new  idea.  It 
has  arisen,  of  course,  because  men  have  come  to  be  di- 
vided in  religion,  because  with  the  growth  of  science  and 
independent  habits  of  thought  men  are  now  of  many 
minds — and  no  one  wishes  to  be  forced  to  contribute  to 
the  support  of  what  he  does  not  believe  in.  If  there  were 
only  two  or  three  great  divisions  of  religious  sentiment, 
the  State  might  still  continue  its  traditional  policy,  divid- 
ing its  support  among  the  two  or  three  claimants — as  has 
been  done  in  Germany  and  France,  where  Protestants  as 
well  as  Catholics  and  perhaps  Jews  and  Mohammedans 
have  received  support  from  the  public  funds  proportion- 
ally to  their  numbers.  But  where  the  population  becomes 
still  more  divided,  where  variations  multiply,  where  often 
each  man  has  his  own  religion,  and  some  have  none  at  all 
— there  the  old  basis  for  a  union  of  Church  and  State 
practically  breaks  down  entirely,  and  the  simplest  way, 
the  only  way,  comes  to  be  to  let  the  various  religious  ad- 
herents support  each  his  own  church,  and  if  there  are  those 
who  have  no  religion,  to  support  none.  This  is  the  theory 
at  which  we  have  arrived  in  this  country — indeed  to  us 
Americans  it  is  so  obvious  that  the  statement  of  it  sounds 
the  merest  commonplace,  and  we  can  hardly  realize  that 
it  is  scarcely  more  than  a  century  or  two  old.  In  Eng- 
land still  it  is  not  recognized;  it  is  not  in  Germany  or 
Italy,  not  to  say  Holy  Russia — I  am  not  positive,  but  I 
think  the  only  country  that  recognizes  it  in  this  Western 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.      201 

hemisphere  is  the  United  States ;  the  new  republic  of  Bra- 
zil, where  separation  of  Church  and  State  is  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  having  taken  place,  still  pays  the  priests  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  and  in  certain  sections  Protestant 
pastors. 

Now,  France  down  to  the  time  of  the  great  Revolution 
was,  after  Spain  and  Italy,  one  of  the  most  Catholic 
countries  in  Europe ;  she  was  the  "eldest  daughter  of  the 
Church;"  Protestantism  never  got  a  real  footing  there. 
But  since  the  Revolution,  and  partly  on  account  of  the 
great  thinkers  and  agitators  whom  we  connect  with  the 
Revolution,  Rousseau,  Voltaire,  Diderot,  Condorcet  and 
the  rest,  the  old  Catholic  faith  has  been  in  a  gradual  and 
constant  process  of  disintegration  in  the  minds  of  the 
people.  A  prominent  Italian  Catholic  ^  admits  that  Cath- 
olics are  now  in  the  minority  in  France — and  he  concedes 
the  inevitable  conclusion  that  "a  minority  can  never  form 
the  religion  of  the  State  in  accordance  with  principles  of 
modern  parliamentary  government."  An  English  Cath- 
olic speaks  of  "the  appalling  extent  to  which  the  church 
has  lost  its  hold  on  the  French  people ;"  he  says  that  there 
are  "large  districts  of  France,"  in  which  "the  practice  of 
religion  has  almost  ceased,"  and  admits  that  where  it  con- 
tinues, it  is  to  a  large  extent  "merely  an  external  form."  ^ 

But  perhaps  the  most  important  witness  is  a  French 
abb^,  writing  in  the  October  number  of  the  American 
Catholic  Quarterly  Review  (1906) ;  his  story  has  almost 
a  pathetic  interest,  and  recalls  similar  impressions  which 
I  received  in  Italy.  He  says  the  country  churches  are  be- 
coming more  and  more  empty,  that  many  a  priest  has  a 
congregation  of  five  or  six  old  crones  to  listen  to  his 


*  Romolo  Murri  in  Rassegna  Nazionale,  quoted  in  Literary  Di- 
gest, 24  Nov.  1906,  p.  760. 

*  Robert  Dell,  Fortnightly  Review,  Oct.  1906,  p.  615. 


202       THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

service  on  Sundays.  In  many  cases,  he  remarks,  the  re- 
ligious practices  are  mere  formalities,  rites  that  have  to 
be  performed  because  they  are  traditional.  Atheists,  he 
says,  are  married  in  church  to  please  the  bride ;  some  of 
the  most  violent  antagonists  of  Catholicism  have  been  car- 
ried before  the  altar  after  their  death ;  even  the  last  sacra- 
ments are  often  received  because  it  looks  so  much  better 
for  the  family — "rites,  not  faith,"  he  adds  with  a  sigh. 
Becoming  more  specific,  he  says  that  in  nearly  all  the  in- 
dustrial towns  not  a  tenth  of  the  population  goes  to 
church,  and  if  we  considered  only  the  quarters  inhabited 
by  working  people,  the  proportion  would  be  still  smaller ; 
that  there  are  rural  districts  in  which  the  case  is  quite  as 
bad,  that  the  non-religious  area  is  spreading,  that  amongst 
the  workmen  of  the  towns  and  the  peasants  in  all  the 
country  around  Paris  there  is  a  general  distrust  and  ha- 
tred of  the  priest,  that  while  there  are  other  regions  where 
the  priest  is  still  respected  and  many  practice  religion, 
though  abstainers  are  as  numerous,  and  still  other  parts 
of  France  like  Brittany  where  nearly  all  are  good  Cath- 
olics, on  the  whole  the  real  Catholics  are  certainly  a  mi- 
nority amongst  the  men,  and  perhaps  among  the  women, 
too.  He  significantly  remarks  that  in  the  German  Kul- 
turkampf  (waged  under  Bismarck),  the  priests  of  that 
country  had  a  great  advantage — they  had  their  popula- 
tion at  their  back.  He  refers  to  the  view  that  the  Free- 
masons are  responsible  for  the  troubles  in  France,  and 
calls  it  time  to  abandon  the  fiction  of  36,000,000  Catholics 
oppressed  by  26,000  Freemasons — and  says  roundly,  "we 
are  in  fact,  a  minority  oppressed  by  a  majority."  It 
would,  of  course,  be  foolish  to  speak  of  these  peasants  and 
working  people  on  whom  Catholicism  has  lost  its  hold  as 
disciples  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  and  yet  an  influence- 
is  in  the  air,  coming  more  or  less  from  men  like  these. 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.      203 

that  is  responsible  for  their  present  mental  condition ;  they 
vaguely  know  too  that  the  upper  educated  class  now  are 
largely  unbelievers — the  abbe  I  have  quoted  mournfully 
says  that  the  cultivated  section,  and  especially  the  mascu- 
line intellect,  of  the  nation  for  the  greater  part  escapes 
the  influence  of  the  Church.  But  whatever  the  causes,  the 
broad  facts  remains :  "the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Church" 
is  no  longer  really  a  Catholic  country — real,  or  as  the 
abbe  calls  them,  "practical"  Catholics  are  now  a  minority ; 
and  the  defection  is  not  simply  among  the  so-called  intel- 
lectual class,  it  reaches  down  among  the  mass  of  the  com- 
mon people. 

In  circumstances  like  these  the  old  principle  of  a  union 
of  Church  and  State  breaks  down  by  the  weight  of  its 
own. absurdity.  It  is  absurd  and  unjust  to  support  out  of 
the  public  funds  what  a  large  number,  not  to  say  a  ma- 
jority, really  do  not  believe  in — to  take  one  man's  money 
and  make  it  support  another  man's  faith.  This  is  the 
broad  general  ground  of  principle  underlying  efforts  like 
that  which  the  French  Republic  is  now  making  to  sep- 
arate Church  and  State — it  is  what  makes  such  efforts 
simply  inevitable  in  time,  the  circumstances  being  given. 
Separation  or  disestablishment  is  inevitable  sooner  or 
later  in  England,  in  Germany,  even  in  Italy  and  Austria 
and  Spain;  wherever  modern  intellectual  tendencies  get 
under  way,  a  disintegration  of  the  ancient  faith  comes, 
and  when  this  comes,  the  public  support  of  Catholicism 
or  any  specific  church  becomes  an  anachronism.  In  Spain 
it  looks  as  if  a  movement  similar  to  that  in  France  might 
start  in  the  near  future.^ 

Accordingly  a  separation  law  has  been  passed  in  France. 
Undoubtedly  the  date  of  the  law  was  determined  by  spe- 


'  Since  writing  the  above  there  has  been  a  change  of  ministries 
and  a  political  reaction;  but  it  is  likely  to  be  only  temporary. 


204      THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

cial  events.  The  Pope  a  while  ago  refused  to  appoint  the 
Bishops  nominated  by  the  French  Government,  and  ap- 
pointed others  without  consulting  the  government,  thus 
violating  the  Concordat  that  has  been  in  effect  since  Na- 
poleon's time.  This  was  naturally  irritating;  and  Presi- 
dent Loubet,  when  paying  a  visit  to  the  King  of  Italy  in 
Rome,  did  not  call  on  the  Pope.  At  this  the  Pope  sent  a 
protest  to  the  governments  of  Europe — a  proceeding 
which  excited  such  resentment  in  France  that  the  Repub- 
lic withdrew  its  representation  at  the  Vatican.  If  all  this 
had  not  happened  the  date  of  the  Separation  Law  might 
not  have  been  December,  1905,  but  it  would  only  have 
been  postponed.  Another  thing:  the  Catholic  Church,  or 
rather  the  hierarchy,  has  not  been  friendly  to  the  Repub- 
lic from  the  start.  Like  other  powers  that  had  special 
privileges,  it  has  clung  tenaciously  to  the  old  order.  It 
joined  with  the  king  and  the  nobles  against  the  people  in 
their  struggle  for  political  rights  in  the  great  Revolution 
of  1789.  It  has  made  a  part  of  the  monarchical  party  ever 
since.  It  is  said  (perhaps  with  exaggeration),  that  three 
times  it  has  come  near  to  overthrowing  the  Republic,  un- 
der McMahon,  with  Boulanger,  and  with  the  army  against 
Dreyfus.  The  Republic  has  gradually  established  a  sys- 
tem of  public  schools ;  the  church  has  opposed  them — hav- 
ing been  so  long  granted  a  monopoly  of  education,  it 
supposed  it  had  a  right  to  it.  Moreover,  the  government 
found  that  the  priests  and  monks  were  teaching  the  chil- 
dren unrepublican  doctrines  and  training  them  to  be  mon- 
archists. Indeed,  an  eminent  American  Archbishop  *  has 
frankly  said,  "Monarchical  ideas  and  plottings  have  done 
dreadful  injury  to  the  Church  in  France."  All  this  has 
brought  needless  bitterness  into  the  present  struggle,  it 


*  Archbishop  Ireland,  Cf.  Bodley,  quoted  in  Springfield   (Week- 
ly)   Repuhlican,  20  Dee.  1906. 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.      205 

has  made  friends  of  the  government  say  some  violent  and 
foolish  things;  but  if  the  church,  or  rather  hierarchy, 
had  not  been  ractionary  and  partisan,  if  it  had  accepted 
the  new  order  as  Leo  XIII  advised  it  to  do,  separation 
would  have  been  inevitable  all  the  same,  in  view  of  the 
general  circumstances  to  which  I  have  before  alluded, 
though  heart-burnings  might  have  been  less.  The  trouble 
is  laid  by  an  Archbishop  ^  at  the  door  of  a  few  dema- 
gogues and  agitators  who  have  a  hold  on  the  republic — 
it  is  a  surprisingly  superficial  statement.  If  agitators 
ever,  in  any  kind  of  a  conflict  or  crisis,  take  the  helm,  it 
is  because  sober  men  have  not  done  their  duty ;  and  in 
this  case  it  is  the  sober  rank  and  file  of  the  Republic  that 
have  done  the  work — the  extremists  would  have  gone  fur- 
ther, but  were  not  allowed  to  have  their  way. 

The  separation,  decreed  a  year  ago  in  December,  was 
to  be  as  easy  for  the  Church  as  possible,  and  yet  be  sep- 
aration. The  $8,000,000  a  year  hitherto  appropriated 
from  the  public  treasury  to  pay  the  salaries  of  the  clergy 
was,  of  course,  to  stop;  but  a  system  of  pensions  for 
priests  now  in  service  was  provided,  varying  according 
to  their  age  and  length  of  service,  and  the  church  build- 
ings were  to  be  transferred  to  associations  made  up  of 
their  respective  parishioners.  There  was  to  be  no  vio- 
lence, no  confiscation — public  worship  was  to  go  on  just 
as  it  had  been  going,  with  the  exception  that  after  a  cer- 
tain period,  the  support  of  it  was  to  come  entirely  from 
the  worshippers  themselves.  As  this  point  is  not  clear  to 
all  minds,  and  as  the  most  unreasoning  and  violent  lan- 
guage is  used  by  some  Catholics  in  relation  to  the  Separa- 
tion Law,  it  may  be  well  to  make  a  detailed  statement. 

(i)  This  is  a  general  disestablishment  that  France  is 
putting  into  effect.    It  applies  to  the  Lutheran,  Reformed 

'  Archbishop  Ireland. 


2o6      THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

or  Calvinist,  and  Jewish  religions  as  well — even  to  the 
Mohammedan,  as  I  understand  it,  in  Algiers.  All  have 
been  supported  in  a  measure  by  the  State,  and  the  sup- 
port of  all  alike  is  to  be  discontinued.  There  is  no  dis- 
crimination against  Catholics. 

(2)  There  is  a  general  law  of  associations  in  France. 
It  provides  that  before  an  association  can  acquire  real 
property  and  a  corporate  legal  personality,  capable  of 
suing  or  being  sued,  it  must  make  a  declaration  in  a 
form  provided  by  the  law.  This  declaration  must  state 
the  title  and  objects  of  the  association,  the  address  of  its 
officers  and  so  on.  By  making  a  declaration  the  associa- 
tion is  ipso  facto  legally  constituted. 

(3)  The  Separation  Law  simply  applies  this  general 
law  to  religious  associations.  It  calls  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  worshippers  in  any  religion,  or  rather  in  any 
specific  church  or  parish,  into  an  association'  cultuelle 
(public  worship  association) — to  which,  or  its  officers,  the 
church  property,  i.  e.,  the  church  building  itself  with  its 
furniture,  ornaments  and  relics,  and  the  parsonage,  may 
be  transferred.  Such  associations  are  common  among 
Protestant  churches  in  our  country — their  officers  are 
called  trustees,  or  vestrymen.  Similar  associations  hold 
Catholic  church  property  in  Germany,  or  at  least,  Prus- 
sia. Indeed  it  would  appear  that  in  France  the  Catholic 
church  buildings  in  the  past  have  not  been  really  the 
property  of  the  bishop  as  is  commonly  supposed,  but  of 
what  are  called  "conseils  de  fabrique,"  bodies  of  laymen 
with  the  parish  priest  as  chairman,  half  of  whom  were 
nominated  by  the  government,  the  mayor  being  an  ex 
officio  member. 

(4)  The  Protestant  and  Jewish  religions  have  made 
no  objection  to  the  law;  the  Catholic  Church  has  made 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.      20/ 

Strenuous  objection — why?  An  American  Archbishops 
has  said  it  is  as  if  the  legislature  of  New  York  were  to 
enact  laws  compelling  the  trustees  of  Trinity  Church  cor- 
poration, under  the  penalty  of  confiscation,  to  give  its 
consent  to  the  alienation  of  all  its  vast  property  to  other 
uses  than  those  for  which  it  was  intended  and  to  transfer 
its  administration  and  control  to  people  who  might  either 
belong  to  rival  denominations  or  even  profess  atheism. 
This  is  a  most  unaccountable  misrepresentation.  The  law 
provides  that  the  property  of  each  church  (or  religion) 
shall  go  only  to  that  church.  Clauses  IV,  VIII  and  XIII 
make  it  impossible  for  the  Roman  Catholic  cathedrals  and 
churches  to  be  assigned  to  any  but  a  Catholic  public  wor- 
ship association,  just  as  they  require  that  Protestant  edi- 
fices and  Jewish  synagogues  shall  be  assigned  only  to 
those  associations  which  represent  their  present  holders. 
"The  general  rules  of  organization"  of  each  religion  are 
to  be  sacredly  respected — and  one  of  those  rules,  in  the 
case  of  the  Catholic  church,  every  one  knows,  is  the  ne- 
cessity of  being  in  communion  with  the  bishop  of  the  dio- 
cese— thereby  Catholicism  differs  from  all  forms  of  Pro- 
testant or  independent  religious  organization;  and  M. 
Briand,  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  and  Worship, 
has  repeatedly  stated  that  this  rule  will  be  the  first  con- 
sideration in  deciding  between  rival  associations  claiming 
to  be  Catholic,  in  case  there  should  be  rival  claimants  in 
any  particular  case.  From  all  that  I  have  read  I  cannot 
discover  a  scintilla  of  evidence  that  the  French  govern- 
ment has  any  intention  whatever  of  allowing  old-time 
Catholic  Churches  to  be  used  by  Protestants  or  atheists, 
supposing  that  associations  are  formed  as  the  law  re- 
quires. 

•  Archbishop   Farley,  as  quoted  in  Chicago  Tribune,   17   Dec. 
1906. 


208      THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

(5)  As  matter  of  fact,  the  French  bishops,  while  not 
liking  separation,  voted  by  a  large  majority,  in  formal 
assembly,  to  give  the  new  law  a  trial.  Some  of  the  most 
eminent  Catholic  laity — men  like  Brunetiere,  A.  Leroy- 
Beaulieu  and  de  Vogue  have  urged  this  course.  The 
Bishops  drew  up  a  plan  of  constitutions  for  Catholic  pub- 
lic worship  associations.  These  constitutions  formally 
subjected  the  associations  to  the  authority  of  the  Pope  and 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese ;  they  required  of  all  the  members 
a  formal  profession  of  faith  and  of  submission  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  Pope  and  the  Church,  and  a  formal  engage- 
ment that  they  would  abstain  from  joining  any  secret  so- 
ciety condemned  by  the  church,  and  would  conform  to  the 
laws  of  the  Church  as  regards  Baptism,  First  Commun- 
ion, education  of  their  children,  the  marriage  of  them- 
selves and  their  children,  religious  burial,  etc. ;  the  parish 
priest,  according  to  the  plan,  was  an  ex  oMcio  member; 
everyone  who  remained  for  a  month  under  any  ecclesias- 
tical censure  ceased  to  be  a  member — a  provision  that  en- 
abled the  bishop  to  expel  any  member,  and  would  make  it 
impossible  for  the  association  to  be  captured  by  heretics 
or  schismatics. "^  Such  was  the  model  for  the  associa- 
tions proposed  by  the  French  bishops.  As  an  English 
Catholic  writer  has  pointed  out,  a  Catholic  public  worship 
association  of  this  kind  would  be  more  under  the  control 
of  the  bishop  than  is  the  present  "conseil  de  fabrique," 
which  may  have  members  who  are  not  Catholics  at  all. 
M.  Briand  has  stated  that  the  plan  of  the  Bishops  was  in 
accordance  with  the  Separation  Law.  Indeed,  this  Min- 
ister of  Public  Instruction  and  Worship,  who  is  a  So- 
cialist and  a  statesman  at  the  same  time,  points  out  that 
the  scruples  and  misgivings  of  the  Papacy  are  treated 
more  sympathetically  in  this  law  than  they  were  in  Ger- 
^  Robert  Dell,  Fortnightly  Review,  Oct.  1906,  p.  610. 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.      209 

many — there  the  Chairman  of  the  Public  Worship  Asso- 
ciation must  be  a  la>Tnan,  in  France  he  may  be  the  parish 
priest.^ 

(6)  For  all  this,  however,  the  Pope  has  refused  to  allow 
French  Catholics  to  conform  to  the  Separation  Laws. 
When  the  Pope  learned  of  the  plan  of  the  Bishops  I  have 
just  described,  he  is  reported  to  have  exclaimed,  "They 
have  voted  against  me — they  have  voted  as  French- 
men." ^  It  was  something  like  consternation  that  went 
through  the  Catholic  population  of  France,  when  the 
Pope's  Encyclical  was  published  last  August.  Diligent 
search,  says  the  Literary  Digest,  fails  to  discover  in  the 
leading  political  organs  a  single  sentence  in  vindication 
of  the  Pope's  attitude.  Twenty-three  of  the  most  promi- 
nent Catholics  in  France  united  in  an  appeal  to  him  to 
withdraw  or  modify  the  Encyclical.  They  urged  that  the 
great  majority  of  laymen,  clergymen  and  bishops  were 
satisfied  with  the  new  law,  and  believed  it  could  be  obeyed 
without  impairing  the  spiritual  influence  of  the  Church. 
In  view  of  this  it  becomes  tolerably  plain  that  the  opinion 
and  will  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  France  have  been  de- 
liberately overborne  by  the  Pope,  and  that  a  truer  title 
for  my  address  to-day  would  be  "The  Conflict  of  the  Pope 
with  the  French  Republic."  The  mystery  is  why  the 
Pope  should  have  acted  as  he  has.  I  have  been  puzzled 
and  perplexed  myself,  but  I  think  I  have  at  last  the  clue. 
M.  Briand  says,  "The  French  government  does  not  find 
itself  confronted  by  a  revolt  of  the  Catholic  conscience, 
but  by  an  enterprise  which  is  purely  political."  The  first 
part  of  the  statement  is  palpably  true ;  the  second  is  open 
to  doubt.  There  are  reasons  enough  for  suspecting  po- 
litical  designs  behind   ecclesiastical  actions   against  the 


«  The  (London)   Speaker,  18  Aug.  1906. 
»  The  Nation,  13  Sept.  1906. 


2IO      THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

Republic,  but  after  some  study  and  searching  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  in  this  case  a  subtler  and  deeper  motive  is 
at  work.  Some  one  has  said,  "The  Church  is  Episcopal; 
the  law  tries  to  make  it  congregational."  The  language 
is  epigrammatic  and  perhaps  needs  explanation  to  an  un- 
ecclesiastical  audience ;  but  I  suspect  it  goes  to  the  heart 
of  the  matter.  The  theory  of  the  Pope  is  that  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Catholic  Church  belongs  to  the  Roman  Pontiff 
and  the  Bishops.  It  is  a  somewhat  startling  proposition, 
but  it  is  deliberately  advanced  by  Pius  X.  The  Church 
does  not  own  its  property,  but  the  head  (or  heads)  of  the 
church — the  hierarchy.  This  is  the  real  reason  why  the 
Pope  cannot  consent  to  the  Public  Worship  Associations 
provided  for  by  the  French  law,  even  as  the  plan  was 
drawn  up  for  them  by  the  French  Bishops.  No  matter 
how  strictly  and  absolutely  Roman  Catholic  the  Associa- 
tions, it  would  be  to  them  that  the  Government  would 
transfer  the  property,  not  to  the  Pope  or  Bishops.  The 
Pope  wants  his  (i.  e.,  the  hierarchy's)  right  recognized; 
he  demands  (to  quote  his  own  language),  "that  the  im- 
mutable right  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  of  the  Bishops, 
and  their  authority  over  the  necessary  property  of  the 
Church,  particularly  over  the  sacred  edifices"  shall  be  es- 
tablished by  law.  In  other  words,  he  wants  a  legal  recog- 
nition of  his  peculiar  theory  of  the  ownership  of  Catholic 
property.  It  is  the  monarchical  theory,  the  absolutist 
theory,  as  opposed  to  a  democratic  theory.  So  far  as  its 
property  is  concerned,  he  might  rewrite  a  famous  French 
king's  motto,  and  say  "L'eglise — c'est  moi,"  "the  church, 
it  is  I."  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  new  claims  of  Papal 
infallibility,  another  step  in  the  direction  of  ecclesiastical 
centralization — ^but  it  is  hardly  a  theory  which  the  French 
Republic  is  likely  to  recognize.^^^ 

"  It  is  a  curious  fact,  however,  that  in  the  United  States  all 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.      211 

An  English  writer,  to  whom  I  am  much  indebted  in 
this  address,  says  that  from  the  charges  made  one  would 
suppose  that  the  churches  in  France  had  hitherto  been 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  and 
that  now  the  State  was  incontinently  seizing  upon  them, 
while  the  fact  is  that  in  the  whole  history  of  France  the 
churches  have  never  been  the  property  of  the  bishops, 
still  less  of  the  Pope,  any  more  than  they  were  in  Eng- 
land or  in  any  other  Catholic  country  in  the  Middle 
Ages.^^  He  calls  the  view  of  the  Pope  I  have  described 
"the  modern  Ultramontane  notion,"  and  says  that  it  has 
never  been  accepted  by  the  French  nation,  either  in  theory 
or  practice.  And  yet  here  the  Pope  stands.  A  semi-offi- 
cial note  was  published  in  Rome  only  the  20th  December 
last  saying,  "The  Holy  See  will  not  desist  from  its  pres- 
ent attitude  until  a  bill  is  presented  containing  as  a  mini- 
mum to  be  tolerated  an  acknowledgment  of  the  essential 
rights  of  the  Church,  beginning  with  the  Catholic  hier- 
archy, which  is  the  divine  foundation  of  the  organization 
of  the  Church."  12  in  an  Encyclical  of  February,  1906, 
the  Pope  said,  "That  the  state  must  be  separated  from 
the  Church  is  a  thesis  absolutely  false,  a  most  pernicious 
error."  He  even  described  it  as  a  "great  injustice  to 
God."  And  he  recently  exclaimed,  "Nothing  shall  ar- 
rest our  course,  neither  persecutions  nor  martyrdom,  in 

Catholic  property  is  held  in  the  Bishop's  name.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  our  country  has  never  had  to  face  France's 
problem,  for  there  has  never  been  a  union  of  Church  and  State, 
and  virtual  public  ownership  of  church  property,  in  the  first 
place  (save  in  some  New  England  villages  in  colonial  days). 
If  there  had  been  a  Catholic  establishment  here  it  would  be  inter- 
esting to  know  if,  in  changing  to  the  present  system,  our  Govern- 
ment would  have  transferred  the  property  to  Bishops,  instead  of 
to  the  congregations  and  their  Trustees. 

"  Robert  Dell,  Fortnightly  Review,  Oct.  1906,  pp.  607-«08. 

"  Reprinted  in  Boston  Pilot,  29  Dec.  1906. 


212      THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

our  work  of  protecting  religion.     Our  cause  is  the  cause 
of  God."  13 

To  my  mind,  this  position  of  the  Pope,  if  he  does  not 
recede  from  it,  will  be  little  less  than  epoch-making.  The 
claim  may  be  old,  but  it  has  never  been  so  sharply  made 
before.  The  Pope  is  really  asking  more  from  France  than 
he  had  under  the  Concordat,  now  abolished.  He  is  ask- 
ing more  than  Pius  IX  asked  of  Prussia  in  the  war  with 
Bismarck — at  least  more  than  he  got ;  for  thirty  years  now 
church  property  there  has  been  in  the  hands  of  councils 
who  are  democratically  elected  by  all  the  Catholics  of  each 
parish. 1^  He  is  not  content  to  have  Church  property 
Catholic,  he  wants  it  Papal,  Hierarchical — he  even  pre- 
fers to  have  the  French  Catholics  lose  their  property  than 
have  it  owned  by  the  Public  Worship  Associations.  It  is 
an  immense  claim,  a  revolutionary  one — and  it  is  an  im- 
mense responsibility  he  has  taken  on  himself  in  making  it 
at  this  critical  moment. 

I  have  spoken  of  his  position  as  possibly  epoch-making. 
But  there  are  epochs  in  the  decline  of  a  people  or  relig- 
ion as  well  as  in  its  rise  or  advancement:  and  this  posi- 
tion, if  persisted  in,  will  mark  an  epoch  in  the  decline  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  France — yes,  wherever  in  the 
world  there  are  democratic  tendencies  and  the  people  at 
all  think.  It  will  be  written  down  that  the  present  Pope 
cared  more  for  a  theory  of  ecclesiastical  property  than  he 
did  for  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  for  the  continuity  of 
public  worship,  for  the  peaceful  enjoyment  by  Catholics 
of  their  customary  privileges — for  a  theory  too,  that  in- 
volved distrust  of  his  faithful  subjects.  It  is  as  if  a  Pro- 
testant pastor  should  say,  I  cannot  trust  my  parish  or 
congregation,  and  all  its  property  I  must  own  in  my  own 

"  Literary  Digest,  22  Dec.  1906. 

"  So  Robert  Dell,  Fortnightly  Review,  Oct.  1906,  p.  611. 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.      21 3 

name.  French  Catholics  temporarily  submit,  the  Bishops 
submit — it  is  a  terrible  thing  for  those  who  still  live  under 
the  shadow  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  be  put  under  the  ban 
by  the  Pope;  American  Catholics,  too,  submit — though 
for  some  who  have  really  breathed  the  American  spirit  it 
must  be  hard.  But  when  the  excitement  of  the  crisis  is 
over,  and  a  period  of  reflection  sets  in,  I  believe  that 
thoughtful  Catholics  will  think  less  of  the  pretensions  of 
the  Papacy  than  ever  before,  that  defections  from  the 
Church  will  increase,  that  men  will  feel  with  new  dis- 
tinctness that  the  Church  as  Pius  X  conceives  it  is  an 
anachronism  in  the  modern  world.  As  it  is,  the  papers  tell 
us  of  profound  apathy  in  Paris  when  the  Separation  Law 
went  into  effect  (on  December  nth  last)  ;  the  attendance 
in  the  churches  at  mass  was  indeed  larger  than  for  years, 
but  it  was  mostly  women;  nowhere  were  the  churches 
crowded — even  at  Notre  Dame  cathedral,  where  solemn 
high  mass  was  celebrated,  the  edifice  was  only  half 
filled.15 

Is  it  necessary  still  to  say  a  word  about  "con- 
fiscation"? Uninformed  or  else  unscrupulous  Cath- 
olics speak  of  the  Separation  Law  as  a  "great 
National  theft."  One  of  our  American  arch- 
bishops quotes  significantly  the  commandment,  "Thou 
shalt  not  steal"  as  applying  to  governments  as  well  as  indi- 
viduals. But  there  is  another  command  equally  impera- 
tive, "Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neigh- 
bor"— and  it  is  false  witness  to  say  that  the  French  Gov- 
ernment has  planned  anything  like  confiscation.  It  plan- 
ned a  law  in  accordance  with  which  Catholic  parishes 
might  now  be  having  all  the  property  they  ever  had.  This 
law  (or  some  similar  law)  was  necessary,  because  hith- 
erto there  had  been  a  union  of  State  and  Church — and 

"  Chicago  Record-Herald,  12  Dec.  1906. 


214      THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

churches  not  having  been  private  but  public  institutions 
and  the  State  being  always  the  ultimate  judge  of  property 
rights,  it  was  incumbent  on  the  State  when  the  churches 
became  private  to  say  on  what  terms  they  could  have  the 
property  they  had  hitherto  enjoyed.  A  new  status  re- 
quired a  new  law.  The  Church  (save  in  special  cases) 
had  no  property  rights  against  the  State;  the  State  was 
the  real  ultimate  owner  of  what  it  possessed.  The  State 
accordingly  arranged  to  transfer  the  property  necessary 
to  Catholic  worship  to  the  Public  Worship  Associations  I 
have  described. 

But  what  if  the  associations  were  not  formed,  if  the  in- 
tentions of  the  State  were  frustrated?  This  is  what  has 
happened  under  the  commands  of  Pius  X.  He  forbade 
the  formation  of  associations  required  by  law.  The  result 
is  embarrassment  for  the  State  as  well  as  for  the  faith- 
ful. It  has  property  on  its  hands  which  it  cannot  dispose 
of  as  it  would.  If  then  it  cannot  dispose  of  it  in  one  way, 
it  must  in  another.  The  only  definite  announcement  that 
has  been  made  is  that  property  not  claimed  by  the  associa- 
tions the  law  prescribes,  will  be  assigned  to  charitable  in- 
stitutions. As  matter  of  fact,  the  government  has  not 
done  this  as  yet — it  has  been  most  lenient ;  it  was  to  allow 
a  year  from  the  time  the  law  went  into  effect  for  its  terms 
to  be  complied  with.  According  to  the  instructions  of  the 
ministry,  no  churches  were  to  be  closed — not  a  door  or  a 
window ;  and  they  have  not  been.  There  will  be  no  per- 
secution and  no  martyrdom,  said  M.  Briand  to  an  Ameri- 
can newspaper  correspondent,  and  he  has  stated  officially 
that  churches  (so  far,  that  is,  as  the  Associations  are  not 
formed)  will  remain  open  as  state  and  communal  prop- 
erty, though  the  priests  must  look  to  the  parishes  for  their 
salaries.  Since,  however,  the  Pope  has  positively  forbid- 
den the  formation  of  the  required  associations,  the  situa- 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.      21 5 

tion  has  changed — and  indeed  the  situation  has  become  so 
entangled  and  confused  in  the  last  month  or  two  that  I 
cannot  report  upon  it  confidently  as  it  exists  at  the  present 
moment.  Apparently  the  extension  of  a  year's  time  in 
which  to  comply  with  the  law  has  been  withdrawn ; 
church  property  not  legally  claimed  will  be  converted  to 
charitable  uses  soon ;  the  allowances  or  pensions  to  priests 
who  fail  to  carry  out  the  law  will  be  suppressed.  This  is 
the  whole  basis  for  the  charges  of  confiscation  and  perse- 
cution so  loosely  thrown  about.  It  is  not  really  either, 
nor  do  I  see  how  any  discriminating  or  just-minded  per- 
son could  use  this  language.  On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not 
see  the  propriety  of  speaking  of  the  Church's  attitude 
as  "rebellion"  or  of  the  Pope  as  an  "aggressor."  The 
French  government  simply  offered  the  Catholic  Church 
an  opportunity  and  the  Church  did  not  think  best  to  accept 
it.  We  can  only  speak  of  what  it  has  done  as  a  great 
refusal — something  in  which  it  was  quite  within  its  rights. 
The  Pope  is  a  simple-minded  and  not  broadly  educated 
man,  who  stands  by  his  ideas  with  a  valor  and  firmness 
worthy  of  a  better  cause — he  may  be  the  tool  of  politi- 
cians, but  he  is  not  a  jx)litician  himself — not  perhaps 
enough  of  an  one  for  the  present  crisis. 

All  the  conflicts  of  the  world  are  not  between  crime, 
theft  and  persecution  on  the  one  side  and  rebellion  and 
wickedness  on  the  other,  or  between  things  anywise  com- 
parable to  these.  Some  conflicts  are  between  opposing 
ideas,  discordant  necessities.  Either  side  does  what  is  in- 
evitable from  its  own  point  of  view. 

Speaking  broadly,  looking  at  the  matter  from  an  ele- 
vation, where  causes  and  consequences  may  be  seen  in  a 
long  train  following  one  another,  the  present  conflict  in 
France  is  an  episode  in  the  gradual  dissolution  of  ties  that 
once   held   together   Christendom,    one   incident   in   the 


2l6      THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

breaking  up  of  the  old  religious  faith  that  since  Constan- 
tine  has  practically  ruled  the  Western  world.  Causes  far 
deeper  than  demagogues  and  agitators,  far  deeper  than 
the  present  French  Government  or  the  republic,  have 
operated  to  bring  about  this  crisis.  To  prevent  it,  it 
would  have  been  necessary  to  dam  up  and  dry  up  the  in- 
tellectual spirit  of  the  modern  world — ^the  spirit  that  makes 
it  modern.  This  is  what  Popes  and  Bishops  have  tried  to 
do — they  would  have  no  science,  no  philosophy  indepen- 
dent of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church.  In  a  great  Catholic 
work  published  with  the  Pope's  approval,  it  is  said  that 
"two  great  facts  are  opposed  to  the  doctrine  of  Catholic 
truth:  first,  the  coexistence  of  several  religions  in  coun- 
tries of  equal  civilization ;  and  second,  the  proclamation  of 
the  independence  of  philosophical  thought."  ^^  It  is  the 
old  idea  of  a  world  sovereignty,  that  will  brook  no  rival ; 
it  is  Hildebrand  and  the  great  medieval  popes  over  again. 
But  the  rival  has  arisen  and  is  sweeping  the  field.  The 
old,  proud  sovereignty  is  weakening,  dwindling — so  that 
one  must  almost  pity  it.  The  present  crisis  shows  a 
once  Catholic  nation  now  arrayed  against  it. 

It  is  for  lovers  of  light  and  reason  not  to  indulge  in  in- 
vective and  abuse,  (I  speak  now  for  free-thinkers  like 
myself)  to  endeavor  to  keep  the  "tempered  mood  for 
higher  life  of  states"  of  which  Sophocles  spoke,  to  try  to 
see  simply  the  truth,  to  allay  passion  not  to  increase  it, 
and  to  speak  even  in  a  time  like  this,  above  all  in  such  a 
critical  time,  in  truth  and  in  love. 

"  Pechenard,  "Le  XIX  sifecle  mouvement  du  monde,"  ch.  "Les 
Luttes  de  TEglise"  quoted  in  The  Open  Court,  Oct.  1905,  p.  635. 


THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION 

[The  following  addresses  by  Alexis  Aladin,  leader  of 
the  peasants,  and  member  of  the  Group  of  Toil  in  the  first 
Duma,  and  Nicholas  Tchaykovsky,  were  given  before  the 
Philadelphia  Ethical  Society,  Sunday,  March  17th,  just 
after  a  lecture  by  Mr.  William  M.  Salter,  of  Chicago,  on 
"The  Russian  Revolution."  Mr.  Salter's  lecture  will  be 
printed  in  the  April  number  of  the  International  Journal 
of  Ethics.] 

ADDRESS  BY   ALEXIS  ALADIN. 

A  FEW  years  ago  it  was  quite  true  that  the  large  masses 
of  peasantry'  were  practically  inert  and  politically^  dead. 
But  since  the  time  when  our  Duma  met  one  year  ago,  we 
have  succeeded  in  taking  hold  of  the  masses  of  the  popu- 
lation, about  a  hundred  million  of  them,  and  in  swinging 
them  into  one  mighty  movement.  It  is  difficult  even  for 
a  storm  to  put  in  motion  the  boundless  sea,  but  when  the 
water  is  put  in  motion  you  cannot  stop  it.  I  think  we 
need  not  discuss  any  more  the  question  about  our  readi- 
ness and  determination  to  get  what  we  want. 

In  the  first  Duma,  one  year  ago,  our  party — the  Party 
of  Toil — representing  the  working  classes  and  the  peas- 
antry, had  116  representatives  out  of  440.  The  Govern- 
ment claimed  that  we  were  not  the  true  representatives  of 
the  people,  and  accordingly  dissolved  us.  They  meant  to 
get  a  new  Duma  less  radical  than  the  first  one.  They 
tried  to  attain  the  same  end  even  with  the  first  one.  The 
peasants,  who  were  supposed  to  be  uneducated  and  inert, 
had  the  privilege  of  sending  from  every  province  a  spec- 

217 


2l8  THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION. 

ial  delegate,  and  they  sent  them.  But  all  of  the  special 
representatives  of  this  uneducated,  politically  inert  mass 
of  peasantry  were  in  the  Party  of  Toil,  the  extreme  left 
of  the  Duma. 

To  change  the  character  of  the  Duma  the  Government 
put  forth,  during  the  six  months  of  intermission  between 
the  first  and  the  second  Duma,  the  whole  pressure  which 
a  body  possessing  1,200,000  soldiers  in  time  of  peace,  and 
250,000  Cossack  troops  and  the  whole  system  of  police, 
could  put  forth.  They  put  it  forth  to  the  extent  of 
striking  off  the  electoral  list  9,000,000  of  peasant  voters 
out  of  30,000,000.  They  knew  that  most  of  us  had  no 
houses,  and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  ask  the  Senate  in  its 
judicial  capacity  to  give  a  new  interpretation  to  the  elec- 
toral law,  and  to  strike  off  the  list  those  of  the  peasant 
party  who  did  not  have  a  house,  and  they  amounted  to 
9,000,000  men.  A  similar  treatment  was  accorded  to 
workingmen.  At  the  time  of  the  election  to  the  first 
Duma  every  man  of  21  years  had  a  vote.  But  now  it 
was  limited  to  the  working  man  who  had  a  separate  lodg- 
ing, or  as  we  say,  a  separate  chimney,  so  that  the  male 
franchise  was  transformed  into  a  chimney  franchise.  Thus 
we  lost  from  twenty  to  forty  per  cent  of  the  votes  of  the 
working  classes,  and  nine  million  peasantry.  We  lost 
them,  but  we  sent  to  the  second  Duma  192  men  instead  of 
116.  It  is  too  late  to  speak  about  a  small  group  of  re- 
formers trying  to  change  the  government  of  the  coun- 
try. The  people  are  united,  and  will  dictate  terms  to  the 
autocracy  and  they  must  accept  them  or  they  will  have 
to  go. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  we  will  accomplish  every- 
thing by  determination  only — deep  as  it  may  be,  and 
strong  as  it  may  be.  Determination  is  not  a  machine- 
gun,  and  even  with  the  whole  body  of  the  people  pre- 


THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION.  219 

pared,  as  it  is  now,  to  oppose  the  government — the  latter 
has  1,200,000  soldiers  to  put  against  us,  and  we  cannot 
fight  them  with  empty  hands.  We  have  found  by  bitter 
experience  that  it  is  sometimes  rather  awkward  to  go  with 
empty  hands  against  a  machine  gun.  We  do  not  mind  our 
losses.  In  one  year,  beginning  with  the  seventh  of  Oc- 
tober, 1905,  and  ending  with  the  seventh  of  October,  1906, 
we  lost  over  16,000  men  and  women  in  wounded  and 
killed.  Fighting  has  been  done  in  separate  groups, 
in  Sveaborg,  in  Caucasia,  in  Crimea,  in  Kief,  in  St.  Pet- 
ersburg, in  Siberia.  Soldiers  fought  side  by  side 
with  us,  but  we  were  defeated.  We  do  not  mean  to  keep 
up  this  guerilla  warfare,  fighting  here  and  there — if  there 
is  to  be  a  battle  let  it  be  a  battle  royal.  Mr.  Dooley,  says, 
"do  not  ask  for  rights,  take  them."  And  we  mean  to  take 
them,  by  all  means  which  are  effective.  The  people  as  a 
body  are  resolved  to  get  at  any  cost  what  they  consider  the 
very  minimum  of  their  rights. 

In  this  struggle  going  on  in  my  country  I  think  it  is  the 
plain  duty  of  America  to  remain  neutral.  Americans 
have  come  to  Russia  and  offered  to  give  money  to  the 
government.  We  organized  a  general  strike,  and  the 
railways  all  stopped,  which  entailed  immense  suffering  to 
the  people.  By  this  strike  we  cleared  these  American 
gentlemen  out  of  the  country.  Now  I  have  come  here 
to  tell  you  Americans  that  you  can,  if  you  will,  prevent  the 
crime  of  lending  money  to  the  Russian  government  from 
being  committed  by  America ;  and  it  is  your  duty  to  do  it. 
But  there  is  something  more  in  our  coming.  There  is 
another  reason.  We  do  not  mind  any  amount  of  losses. 
When  our  boys  are  taken  to  prison  and  to  Siberia  we  do 
not  mind  it.  When  our  women  are  taken  to  prison  and 
sent  to  Siberia  we  do  not  mind  it.  It  is  a  la  guerre  comme 
d  la  guerre — by  thousands  they  go,  and  perish  and  we  do 


220  THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION. 

not  mind  it.  But  when  our  girls  are  taken  to  prison  and 
given  over  for  a  few  hours  of  sport  to  the  Cossacks,  we 
do  mind  it.  You  would  not  stand  anything  like  that  in  a 
war  between  two  nations,  and  if  there  was  a  war  between 
two  sections  of  your  people  you  would  not  stand  it  either. 
You  would  not  have  stood  it  in  your  Civil  War.  When 
the  jailers  begin  to  torture  their  prisoners,  would  you  sit 
idle  and  tolerate  it  ?  I  hope  not  a  single  American  would 
say  yes.  Well,  we  too,  mind  it ;  it  is  not  a  fair  play ;  it  is 
blows  below  the  belt.  And  in  the  name  of  your  glorious 
past,  and  of  your  own  struggle  in  the  past,  we  ask  you, 
the  people  of  America  to  assure  us  fair  play. 

Not  only  on  the  plains  of  Italy,  in  the  mountainous 
districts  of  the  Balkan  peninsula,  on  the  streets  of  Paris, 
but  even  here,  under  your  glorious  Stars  and  Stripes, 
our  men — men  of  my  nation — Russians  fought  for  free- 
dom and  liberty.  If  you  cannot  remember  them,  go  to 
Independence  Hall,  and  scan  the  names  of  the  officers 
who  fell  in  the  cause  of  independence,  and  you  will  find 
the  names  of  my  countrymen.  Can  you  look  at  these 
names,  and  not  give  us  your  help?  If  you  have  not  for- 
gotten your  past,  you  will  stand  by  the  people  which  is 
fighting  for  its  freedom. 


THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION.  221 

ADDRESS  BY  NICHOLAS  TCHAYKOVSKY. 

It  is  our  duty  in  this  country  to  tell  the  last  chapter  of 
the  revolutionary  experiments.  Invariably  we  hear  au- 
thorities quoted  on  Russian  events,  who,  in  spite  of  all 
their  sincerity  and  their  good  intentions,  have  missed  the 
points  in  the  last  chapter.  They  tell  of  Russia  of  the  last 
generation,  but  not  of  the  Russia  of  to-day.  The  Russia 
of  to-day  is  changed,  even  within  the  last  five  years,  to 
such  an  extent  that  out  of  that  inert,  superstitious,  ig- 
norant mass  of  peasants  and  that  unscrupulous  and  ra- 
pacious clique  of  autocratic  bureaucrats  there  has  come 
a  nation  in  revolution.  Only  those  who  have  lived  with 
this  nation,  those  who  know  its  inner  psychologfy,  can 
fully  understand  what  that  means — a  nation  in  revolution. 

Up  to  the  last  century  there  were  two  movements  in 
Russia,  affecting  various  sections  of  the  nation :  the  intel- 
lectuals and  the  masses;  parties  of  intellectuals  were 
working  out  different  doctrines,  different  theories,  and 
there  were  unconscious  movements  among  the  great  mass 
of  the  population.  When  Alexander  II  introduced  his 
measure  for  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  he  said  to  the 
nobles,  "If  we  do  not  give  liberty  to  the  serf  from  above 
he  will  take  it  from  below."  That  was  a  wise  warning 
and  a  statesman's  voice.  But  though  he  introduced  his 
reforms  they  were  insufficient,  and  there  have  since  arisen 
among  the  peasantry  movements  of  spontaneous  hatred 
of  the  autocratic  regime,  together  with  an  ever-growing 
desire  for  liberty.  The  old  persistent  tendency  of  passive 
resistance  on  the  part  of  the  peasants — which  has  practic- 
ally never  ceased  to  exist  during  the  last  seven  centuries 
— has  served  as  a  powerful  traditional  groundwork. 
Seven  centuries  ago  we  were  invaded  by  Tartars,  and  our 
present  autocratic  government  is  a  direct  outcome  of  the 


222  THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION. 

triple  invasion  of  the  Tartar  State,  of  the  Byzantine 
church  and  of  the  German  bureaucracy. 

Mr.  Pobiedonostseff,  who  has  been  called  the  great  pro- 
phet of  autocracy,  claims  that  the  Russian  people  are 
quite  different  from  any  other  civilized  people;  that  they 
are  guided  not  by  reasonable  considerations  but  by  spon- 
taneous impulses;  that  the  government  therefore  must 
be  based  upon  faith  in  divine  inspiration  being  behind  the 
power  of  the  Czar,  and  that  no  other  form  of  government 
but  autocracy  is  possible  for  such  a  people.  If  some 
ground  may  have  existed  for  this  theory  centuries  ago, 
to  our  knowledge  it  does  not  exist  any  longer.  There 
are  no  ideal  rulers  now,  nor  do  the  people  believe  blindly 
in  the  divine  prerogatives  of  the  Czar. 

Originating  in  the  Tartar  invasion,  and  trained  in  Mon- 
golian methods  of  oppression,  the  autocracy  has  been  sus- 
tained by  hard  blows,  the  knout  and  the  hoofs  of  the  Cos- 
sack horses  being  the  favorite  weapons.  It  is  on  account 
of  such  methods  as  these  that  we  are  looking  for  sym- 
pathy from  the  other  nations  of  the  world — and  because 
the  struggle  in  which  the  Russian  people  is  now  engaged 
is  the  fight  of  civilization  against  a  Tartar  domination. 

As  to  our  church — which  was  brought  from  Byzantium 
— its  pompous  forms  are  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the  people, 
and  our  clergy  are  absolutely  unpopular  with  the  masses. 
Our  people  are  deeply  religious,  but  they  have  their  own 
religion  and  they  are  not  ritualistic.  Their  religion  has 
no  more  to  do  with  the  theatrical  effects  and  ceremonial 
pomp  of  the  Greek  church  than  it  has  to  do  with  the 
German  bureaucracy,  which  was  introduced  by  Peter  the 
Great  and  his  successors.  Our  Slavonic  masses  have  al- 
ways had  their  unwritten  laws  by  which  their  public  and 
family  life  are  regulated;  the  communal  possession  of 
their  lands,  and  managing  their  own  affairs  by  a  self-gov- 


THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION.  223 

eming  mir  are  essential  parts  of  that  unwritten  law. 
The  laws  that  have  been  forced  upon  them  from  above 
are  absolutely  foreign  to  them,  and  they  have  always  pas- 
sively resisted  them.  That  element  of  traditional  struggle 
is  one  of  the  forces  now  coming  into  play,  which  was 
overlooked  even  by  such  an  unimpeachable  authority  as 
George  Kennan.  He  saw  the  movement  of  the  intellec- 
tuals, based  upon  Western  science,  and  he  understood  it 
at  once.  But  what  was  going  on  through  the  great 
masses,  through  the  millions  of  our  people — like  the 
waves  of  a  great  ocean,  from  year  to  year — that  he  could 
not  understand,  because  he  never  even  saw  it. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  be  brought  up  among  the  peas- 
ants in  Russia.  Since  the  age  of  six  I  grew  up  with  them^ 
played  with  the  children,  knew  their  sorrows  and  their 
joys,  and  learned  how  to  understand  the  peasant  psy- 
chology. Their  ideals  and  aspirations  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  bureaucracy — that  official  scum  which  lies  on 
the  surface  of  our  nation.  That  scum  has  become  hard- 
ened into  a  crust,  preventing  the  new  tissue  from  grow- 
ing underneath ;  but  when  the  masses  of  our  people  arise 
in  their  might,  it  will  be  thrown  off.  But  it  is  not  an 
easy  matter  to  throw  it  off.  For  thirty-five  years  we  have 
tried  to  do  so ;  but  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  move  a  nation 
of  140,000,000,  to  inspire  them  with  faith  in  the  possi- 
bility of  another  and  higher  form  of  national  existence,  to 
make  them  realize  its  loftiness,  and  to  risk  for  it  their  lives 
and  everything  dear  to  them. 

In  1848,  when  Emperor  William,  the  grandfather  of 
the  present  Emperor  of  Germany,  saw  that  the  masses  of 
the  working  classes  were  really  in  earnest  in  their  de- 
mands and  prepared  to  die  for  their  rights,  he  bowed  be- 
fore the  corpses  of  Berlin  workmen  who  were  killed  by 
the  troops,  and  granted  the  people  a  Constitution.     But 


224  THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION. 

our  "Tartar"  government  is  incapable  of  these  conces- 
sions. What  has  been  done  for  the  Constitution  that  was 
wrung  from  the  government  by  the  general  strike  of  Oc- 
tober, 1905  ?  On  the  very  next  day,  when  the  people  were 
rejoicing  at  this  concession,  when  the  people — dressed  in 
their  best  clothes — went  out  into  the  streets  to  voice  their 
rejoicing,  the  government  introduced  in  our  public  life  a 
spectre  of  death.  They  were  knouted  by  Cossacks,  and 
shot  by  bands  of  ruffians  supplied  with  rifles  and  revolv- 
ers of  the  governmental  type.  The  portrait  of  the  Czar 
and  ikons  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  those  who  were 
blessed  in  the  cathedrals,  and  they  were  called  to  do  the 
sacred  work  of  "protecting  His  Majesty  from  his  internal 
enemies."  A  procession  of  school  children  in  Kursk  was 
trampled  down  by  the  hoofs  of  the  Cossack  horses,  slash- 
ed by  their  swords  and  whipped  by  their  knouts.  There 
were  500  corpses  of  the  massacred  in  one  day  before  the 
railway  buildings  at  Tomsk.  There  were  a  series  of  such 
massacres  all  over  Russia  in  1905,  when  over  14,000  lost 
their  lives  and  18,000  were  mutilated  through  these  per- 
secutions. 

On  the  other  hand,  our  nation  has  shown  a  remarkable 
constructive  power.  This  is  what  happened  in  hundreds 
of  places  when  the  Constitution  was  announced:  the 
former  incompetent  officials  disappeared,  and  local  com- 
mittees of  the  best  men  to  regulate  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity, were  elected  by  the  population.  For  over  two 
months  they  lived  quite  happily,  life  and  property  being 
much  better  protected  than  under  the  autocracy.  But 
after  two  months  the  autocratic  government  determined 
to  crush  down  the  new  order  by  armed  force,  and  they 
jailed,  executed  and  banished  the  members  of  these  com- 
mittees by  hundreds,  and  they  installed  again  the  ejected 
and  banished  officials  who  had  hid  themselves  lest  the 


THE  RUSSIAN  SITUATION.  22$ 

people  should  revenge  upon  them  their  former  misdeeds. 
Such  is  the  destructive  function  of  the  autocracy  against 
the  constructive  power  of  the  people. 

It  is  not  true  that  modern  Russia  consists  only  of  cor- 
rupt officials  and  ignorant  and  silent  masses.  Owing  to 
fifty  years'  work  of  Zemstvos  we  have  quite  a  class  of  ex- 
perienced and  honest  public  servants — doctors,  engineers, 
schoolmasters,  agriculturists  and  others  employed  by 
Zemstvos — technically  competent  men  who  are  absolute- 
ly sincere  and  earnest  in  their  work  of  building  up  the  wel- 
fare of  the  nation.  This  class  is  taking  no  part  in  the 
present  government  work.  To  offer  a  situation  to  one  of 
them  would  be  to  insult  him,  and  to  say  of  one  that  he  ex- 
pects a  government  position  would  mean  to  discredit  him, 
to  compromise  his  reputation.  This  class  occupies  an  in- 
termediary position  between  the  corrupt  official  and  the 
people.  Moreover,  there  is  still  another  element,  a  new 
class  formed  of  the  leaders  of  the  mass  of  the  people — 
the  peasants  and  working  classes.  They  have  caused  the 
people  to  organize  in  thousands  of  unions  and  groups. 
The  government  fears  them  and  does  everything  to  re- 
move them,  arresting  and  exiling  them  without  a  trial. 
Thus  the  autocracy  is  trying  to  prevent  popular  energies 
from  taking  any  new  shape. 

It  is  not  true  to  say  that  we  are  not  prepared,  that  we 
are  not  organized.  Our  working  classes  are  organized, 
as  was  seen  by  the  general  strike  of  October,  1905.  You 
may  call  it  passive  resistance  if  you  like,  as  it  was  not 
the  strike  of  a  class,  but  of  the  nation.  Never  perhaps  in 
all  the  world  was  there  seen  such  a  unanimity  among  such 
a  large  body  of  workers  and  professionals  of  all  sorts. 
Further,  it  is  not  true  that  even  the  army  is  faithful  to 
the  throne.  In  seventy  out  of  two  hundred  and  eight 
regiments  constituting  the  regular  infantry,  political  de- 


226  THE    RUSSIAN    SITUATION. 

inands  were  put  forward  by  the  soldiers,  such  as  free  land 
for  the  peasants,  general  education,  liberties,  etc.  Up  to 
five  months  ago  we  had  no  officers  on  our  side.  Now  we 
have  the  positive  statement  that  in  the  northern  military 
district  alone  there  are  over  three  hundred  officers  who 
have  joined  our  cause,  and  in  the  Caucasus  over  seventy. 
As  to  the  soldiers,  we  have  a  large  proportion  of  the  army 
on  our  side. 

Though  you  have  seen  lately  a  state  of  comparative 
quiet  in  Russia,  it  is  not  that  the  people  are  pacified,  but 
because  we  are  in  a  better  position  to  hold  our  people 
back.  When  we  are  ready,  then  the  signal  will  be  given, 
and  Russia  will  be  freed;  and  peace  and  justice  will  be 
re-established. 


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By  WALTER  L.  SHELDON— 

An  Ethical  Movement 1. 

An  Ethical  Sunday-school  .^    1. 

Old  Testament  Bible  Stories  for  the  Young ^    l.li 

Lessons  in  the  Study  of  Habits 1.1( 

Citizenship  and  the  Duties  of  a  Citizen Lit 

Duties  in  the  Home  and  the  Family  1.1( 

The  Story  of  the  Bible 30| 

Class  Readings  in  the  Bible 50| 

The  Life  of  Jesus  for  the  Young 50J 

A  Study  of  the  Divine  Comedy  of  Dante 50] 

A  Morning  and  Evening  Wisdom  Gem  for  Every 
Day  in  the  Year,  compiled  from  various  au- 
thors, ancient  and  modern    35  j 

By  STANTON  COIT— 

The  Message  of  Man Leather    1.001 

••      " Cloth      .751 

By  NATHANIEL  SCHMIDT— 

The  Prophet  of  Nazareth 2.50 ! 

The  above  books  may  be  obtained  or  ordered  at  the  Li- 
brarian's table  at  the  Sunday  morning  lectures,  of  the  dif- 
ferent Ethical  Societies,  or  at  the  office  of 
ETHICAL  ADDRESSES.  1415  Locust  St.,  PhUadelphia,  Pa. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


lOSSPW 


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1  O'BA-m 


MAR  1  2  1969  n  n 


RECEIVED 


|i.&R  ?.V65-1  Pi^i 


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LD  21A-40m-ll,'63 

rE1602slOU76B 


General  Library 

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Berkeley 


LD62A-50m-2.'fi4 


>„i  r  -i^ 


